<p>One thing about advance planning that I don’t think anyone has mentioned is the testing calendar. I don’t think students should take standardized tests before junior year, except possibly a SAT subject test (if needed) when they just finished a specific subject AND have had some time to study for the test. And if the school offers PSAT to 10th graders, that is great. I think there is a certain amount of learning and maturity that takes place by junior year that is important, so not a good idea to test earlier.</p>
<p>But once they get to junior year, it is easy to run out of calendar in the spring. And I am a big fan of having all testing done by end up junior year so you can really focus on making the final list of schools and start moving on applications – if you are still hoping for a higher test score in the fall, I think that is stressful, and your list of colleges is then fluid because of it. Both of my kids ended up with only the desire to retake one SAT subject test in the fall, which was quite manageable. We laid out the testing calendar fall of junior year, looking at the previous year’s calendar to try to anticipate major conflicts with EC activities, etc. We included 2 sittings for the SAT with a good space between, an ACT (just to see, neither ended up using that score, they were really comparable to their SATs), and subject tests. And my kids studied before they took the SAT and Subject Tests the first time, didn’t take them “just to see how they did”. We also registered well ahead of time to get their preferred testing site.</p>